An Introduction To Spinoza

I first came across Spinoza about a year ago, and I've been hooked since, mostly by his idea of God. This brilliant essay by Matthew Gindin sent me down a long rabbit hole, with AI as my tutor, trying to understand him. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in 1632 to a Portuguese Jewish family that had fled the Inquisition. His community expelled him when he was 23. He spent the rest of his life grinding lenses and writing philosophy so dangerous that he published it under a pen name or not at all. The Ethics came out only after he died. His God is "God or Nature", which is to say reality itself. No grand purpose, no cosmic plan. I've never liked calling myself an atheist. I don't believe in a magical dude or dudess in the sky, but if God means reality, then sure, I believe in God. So did Einstein, who said he believed in the God of Spinoza. On free will, Spinoza says no. That doesn't mean you give up. It means you try to understand why things happen and why you feel what you feel, and you act from that understanding. He's no sourpuss about it either. He's big on friendship, laughter and pleasure. "There is nothing so useful to humans," he wrote, "as other humans." I love that line. What I'd like to borrow from him is the habit of reason. I don't mean thinking like a robot. I mean asking why, and being willing to learn, even if everything is already determined. B.